Training is Dead

A couple months ago, I had an opportunity to attend ASTD’s TechKnowledge 2007 in Las (“What happens here stays here”) Vegas. Initially, I must admit I was glad the event was going to be held in Sin City—I mean, it’s got that rep and I figured I could find some fun stuff to do the night I arrived. But really, walking the Strip is a bit like walking on one of those flat escalators you find in the airport. You meander and meander while bright, shiny things pass by at high speed. Somehow, it’s hard to stop, to seize meaning, or even meaningful entertainment, and then you realize it’s 2am and the conference begins at 7:30am.

Then the head hits the pillow. The eyes close. Sleep comes and – BEEP BEEP! – it’s time to wake up. Am I the only person who finds it strange that people are gambling, smoking and drinking when I am desperate for coffee on the way to the event?

I’ve spent the last several years immersed in eLearning, so to hear Lance Dublin in his session, “De-Mystifying Learning/eLearning Trends: What You Really Need to Know,” declare that training is irrelevant, ineffective, past tense was disconcerting to say the least. For anyone who has spent any time in a training department or eLearning agency, it’s understood that the course is the primary unit of measure in training. And this is the problem, apparently. Trainers have this formal approach where learning objectives become modules, modules become passive receptacles of content and when the learner engages the content, it’s usually done according to script…according to design. And with development timelines these days, courseware could hardly be called real time. But training, it seems, is a very small part of how we learn, and learning is actually not the same as training. Learning happens many different times a day, when we search for and find information from Google, when an email arrives from a colleague on a new process or procedure, or when our six year old politely corrects us that, no, that isn’t a stegosaurus it’s a triceratops. Learning is ongoing, dynamic, gratifying, disparate and custom: in short, it ain’t a course.

So, what to make of all this? Dublin pointed out that for all of those in the audience who planned to hang on to the course, they may as well start planning retirement because they’d soon be out of a job. Courseware is a necessary evil, a wrench in the toolbox, but if we’re smart, we’ll start thinking about ways of delivering learning content in ways that reflect how we actually learn: we search, we seek, we devour boatloads of information daily, and yes, we also train when we have to. To stay ahead of the curve, when we think of eLearning, we’d better think a lot about the learners, what they need, how and when they need it, and how to keep them coming back for more. New technologies like podcasts, vodcasts, m-Learning, RSS, simulations and video games, and yes, blogs, are all a part of the discussion—along with courses. eLearning might consist of a 5 minute podcast or a 1 hour continuous course, but it is ALL learning and it is ALL part of the eLearning toolbox.

Reflecting on it now, traditional training and the essence of Las Vegas couldn’t differ more, but somehow, the leading edge of eLearning and Las Vegas have more in common: information, data and entertainment are cheap and available, but knowing when and how to serve up this information makes all the difference. It’s like the difference between a hangover and a really good time.